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Textile Museum's longtime supporters bequeath $1M

By Pete McQuaid, pmcquaid@lowellsun.com

Updated:
01/19/2014 10:30:47 AM EST

Jonathan Stevens, president and CEO of the American Textile History Museum, talks about the $1 million gift to the museum in the will of longtime supporters G. Gordon and Marjorie Osborne. (SUN PHOTOS / Bob Whitaker)

LOWELL -- G. Gordon Osborne and his wife Marjorie meant a lot to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell.

Gordon, a longtime supporter of the museum, was instrumental in establishing the museum's research library and was inducted into the museum's American Textile Hall of Fame in 2008.

That was before the museum officially received a $1 million bequest from the Osborne estate, a gift it announced on Wednesday.

"Gordon and Marjorie have been great supporters of the museum for probably 30 years," said Jonathan Stevens, ATHM president and CEO. "It's such an honor and thrill that Gordon thought that highly of what we were doing here to give us such a major legacy gift."

Gordon Osborne received a B.S. from the Lowell Technical Institute and an M.S. and Ph.D from the University of North Carolina before joining Warwick Mills in Rhode Island in 1934. He became president and treasurer of the company in 1948, after leveraging his scientific background into making Warwick Mills a go-to company for fabrics during World War II.

"Given his scientific and research background, Gordon got Warwick to produce parachute cloth, which was new and necessary during the war," said Karl Spilhaus, a longtime colleague of the Osbornes and chairman of the museum's board of trustees.

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Osborne continued to spearhead the company's evolution after the war, leading the charge to produce sail cloth, kevlar, industrial fabrics, and even the cloth for a vehicle that landed on Mars. He continued to have a major role in the company well into his 70s and 80s.

"Gordon was a genius at machinery, engineering, every aspect of making fabrics," said Spilhaus. "He was so business-smart in the way he was able to keep the company moving into the right markets.

Gordon Osborne died in 2000 at 93. He wrote the $1 million bequest to the ATHM into his will (which the museum knew about at the time, Stevens said), but the museum did not receive the money until after the death of Osborne's wife Marjorie, who died in April 2013 at 103.

Stevens said that while there have been supporters that have donated $1 million to the museum over a period of years, the Osbornes' bequest is nonetheless a rare, "exceptional gift." Over the years, the Osbornes have donated more than $1.5 million to the museum, in addition to the $1 million bequest.

He said the support of donors is important to the private institution, which charges a low admission fee ($8 for adults) and derives income through its small retail store and educational programs. Eighty-percent of the museum's expenses are covered by fundraising and grants, Stevens said.

The money from the bequest will go into the museum's endowment fund, where it will help pay for capital projects like a review of the building's HVAC system, among other things.

"We'll also be upgrading our collections system and our website to make sure as many people can access to what we have here," said Stevens.

The bequest will also help fund the museum's research library which bears the donors' name. The Osborne library features more than 90,000 documents and pieces of textile history. The materials in the jam-packed two-story library (which Stevens likens to the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark) are still accessed today by doctoral students researching a paper, architects looking at exquisitely preserved plans of mill buildings, or even advertising classes studying old textile ads.

"You can spend days in here," said librarian Jane Ward. "The Osbornes really allowed us to be able to document and save these really important artifacts not just of this industry but of our entire country."

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